The invention relates to a cigarette pack of the soft-carton type, having an (outer) blank which is made of paper and encloses the pack contents, forming in the process a base wall, comprising folding tabs, and a side wall, comprising mutually overlapping side tabs, it being the case that the folding tabs of the base wall and the side tabs are connected to one another by adhesive bonding. The invention also relates to a process and an apparatus for producing packs of this type.
Soft-carton packs represent one of the cigarette packs which is used most widely throughout the world. These soft-carton packs usually comprise an inner blank which is made of tin foil or paper and fully envelops the pack contentsxe2x80x94a cigarette group. A cigarette block formed in this way is positioned in a soft carton, that is to say a carton-like pack which is open at the top and is made of paper or similar packaging material. The soft carton has folding tabs which are adhesively bonded to one another in the region of the base wall and side tabs which are connected to one another, likewise by adhesive bonding, in the region of an upright, narrow side wall. Furthermore, usually a revenue stamp is provided as closure means. This revenue stamp extends in a U-shaped manner, transversely and centrally, over an end wall of the cigarette block. Legs are connected to the front wall and rear wall of the soft carton by adhesive bonding,
Packaging machines for producing (cigarette) packs of this type are designed for increasingly high outputs. The latter result in problems, in particular, where the gluing of the packs or of the blanks is concerned.
The object of the invention is for the packs mentioned in the introduction to be developed further as far as the gluing or adhesive bonding is concerned such that areas of glue or applications of glue can be applied to folding tabs, side tabs, etc. at a high operating or conveying speed and the relevant regions of the blank can be glued to one another.
In order to achieve this object, the pack according to the invention is characterized in that the side tabs are connected to one another by a plurality of rectangular or square applications of glue comprising hot-melt glue, said applications being spaced apart from one another in the longitudinal direction of the side tabs, and the folding tabs of the base wall are connected to one another by a rectangular application of glue comprising hot-melt glue, said application running in the longitudinal direction of the base wall.
The use of hot-melt glue has advantages from a process-engineering standpoint. According to the invention, the applications of glue are already applied in the correct position to a continuous material web for the purpose of forming blanks for the pack, to be precise the applications are applied by stationary slotted nozzles, the material web being moved past the latter during appropriately controlled opening cycles of nozzle slots. Once the applications of glue have set, the material web can be processed without difficulty, that is to say blanks can be severed and folded.
A further special feature of the pack according to the invention consists in that the revenue stamp is connected to the pack exclusively by applications of glue comprising hot-melt glue in the region of front wall and rear wall of the soft carton. Accordingly, all applications of glue for the pack are provided on the material web for the purpose of producing soft-carton blanks.
The applications of glue are reactivated by heat in the region of the packaging machine. According to the invention, elements of the packaging machine are heated, with the result that heat is transferred onto those regions of the blank which have applications of glue. The elements heated are preferably those which are directly involved with the processing of those parts of the blank which are provided with applications of glue, that is to say they have a double function.